I’m starting to get some of the mania. You have to think of it in different ways. For example, who would every pay monthly fees to Ancestry.com. Evidently there are growing numbers of people who can’t complete their curiosity in an evening. Zynga and online games I sort of understand. I raised two kids addicted to them. I can’t wait until they can start paying for them themselves. But then again, time away from Call of Duty is expensive to get.
Linkedin, well I personally use that one a lot but I don’t think I’d spend any more money there except to advertise for employees. Everyone is trolling for work. Groupon, I’m a customer of that too. I’m about to block it. Getting one deal a day I don’t want is starting to annoy me. Let’s see oh, yea, that little something called Facebook. Ok, half the people I know are on it constantly, the other half hate it. The question is can they charge for usage? I’m sure they can and will. Advertising is ultimately a game of taking share from Google since they have most of it. And that wont’ be easy. You can ask a few companies that had the share or all the money in the world. Even then a lot of the eyeballs on Facebook is time away from Google. But based on the deals coming public, everyone wants in. If this is a bubble, I want in. That’s in and out.
Linkedin, well I personally use that one a lot but I don’t think I’d spend any more money there except to advertise for employees. Everyone is trolling for work. Groupon, I’m a customer of that too. I’m about to block it. Getting one deal a day I don’t want is starting to annoy me. Let’s see oh, yea, that little something called Facebook. Ok, half the people I know are on it constantly, the other half hate it. The question is can they charge for usage? I’m sure they can and will. Advertising is ultimately a game of taking share from Google since they have most of it. And that wont’ be easy. You can ask a few companies that had the share or all the money in the world. Even then a lot of the eyeballs on Facebook is time away from Google. But based on the deals coming public, everyone wants in. If this is a bubble, I want in. That’s in and out.
I found this article by Sarah Lacy on TechCrunch revealing. Prepare for a lot more Internet IPO’s. If history repeats itself, a lot of other companies stock will get bid up too. Any suggestions for tag along candidates?
by Sarah Lacy on Jun 2, 2011
In Silicon Valley the terms of venture capital deals, the prices of valuations and the real stories of ousters are routinely dished, whether they always show up in the press or not. Sure it’s all off the record or on background or whispered at a coffee shop, but people who live here love what they do and when companies and valuations grow this quickly, it’s hard to keep the juicy details under wraps.
So when they can’t dish, what do they do? Hide.